152 LEADING AMERICAN MEN OF SCIENCE 



a meeting of men of congenial tastes and spirit, where papers 

 were discussed and great projects with all the enthusiasm of youth, 

 proposed. 



Mr. Dinkel, who was the artist of Agassiz, in describing the 

 "Little Academy" says that the members all had nicknames, as 

 "Molluscus," "Cyprinus," and "Rhubarb." The room was 

 small and so filled with specimens, seat and floor, that visitors 

 not only had to stand up, but sometimes could not move around, 

 while the walls were covered with sketches of all kinds of animals, 

 and their skeletons and grinning skulls, to the possible terror of 

 the landlady. 



Here Agassiz outlined the Brazilian trip which came later, 

 suggested by Martius who told of his experiences in this lotus land 

 of the entomologist. 



That Agassiz was influenced by the strong personality of Von 

 Martius is evident. The latter was the friend of the King of 

 Bavaria; a man of ripe scholarship, who with Spix, had made for 

 his majesty an important trip through South America. Spix 

 died, and Von Martius, to the astonishment and delight of Agassiz, 

 gave him the fishes of this great expedition to work up, this being 

 in a way a notable step in his career. It was the turning of the 

 roads to Agassiz. His parents hoped that he would graduate and 

 become a practicing physician, but Agassiz did not take them 

 wholly into his confidence and tell them of his association with 

 Von Martius, or the signal honor that had fallen to him, as he 

 knew that it would cause them annoyance; so he began on the 

 great work at night, pursuing his medical studies by day, deter- 

 mining to use the work as a lever to induce his parents to consent 

 to the scientific career. 



To his father he wrote, "If during the course of my studies I 

 succeed in making myself known by a work of distinction, will 

 you not then consent that I shall study, at least during one year, 

 the natural sciences alone, and then accept a professorship in 

 Natural History, with the understanding that if in the first place, 

 and in the time agreed upon, I shall take my Doctor's degree? " 

 His father replied, "Let the sciences be the balloon in which you 



